When Americans think of Firebirds, they generally think of a flashy Trans Am. “We were thinking, ‘Wouldn’t it be great to expose people to the firebird that we all know as Russians in our fairy tales?’” says Sandra Prizemin, who helped organize today’s inaugural Firebird Festival: A Taste of Russia…
Divine inspiration brought the Blind Boys of Alabama together in 1939 at the Alabama Institute for the Negro Blind, a school that taught blind youth of the beleaguered South Braille and trained them for rudimentary careers making broom handles and chair bottoms. Leader Jimmy Carter is the sole remnant of…
Jonesy’s EatBar, D Bar Desserts and the Vine Street Pub are the new kids on the block, but a rash of Uptown stalwarts, including Steuben’s, the Avenue Grill, Strings, Parallel 17, Limón and other time-honored eateries will also be back for the 21st Uptown Sampler, a lighthearted culinary journey that…
Singer Gallery curator Simon Zalkind starts off a new gallery season at the Mizel Arts and Culture Center with a pair of different yet fascinating exhibitions by contemporary Israeli artists whose work might not otherwise be seen in these parts. First up is the visually stunning Anima, which features paintings…
The movie Starship Troopers is an utter failure as an adaptation of Robert Heinlein’s revered classic science-fiction novel, which is enough to damn it in the eyes of many fans. But if you can get past that, you’ll enjoy the film on its own merits. Like director Paul Verhoeven’s first…
“The climate is changing. Are you?” Marda Kirn, the guiding light behind EcoArts, wants to know. Now in its third year, the Boulder-based arts-science collaboration — a month-long series comprising performances, talks, tours, workshops, panels and more — is all about suggesting ways that we can collectively take baby steps…
If you’re starting to feel depressed about the first chills of sweater weather, hold those tears until next week, because tonight is the Summer Blowout 2008, a steamy evening of jazz, Western swing, blues and comedy at the Roxy Theater in the historic Five Points neighborhood. “We’re excited this is…
When I was growing up in Colorado, there was never a shortage of field trips to the various little houses on the prairie sprinkled around metro Denver. The likelihood that we had all tried our hand at churning butter by day’s end: 100 percent. The mother of all pioneer re-enactments…
The organized sport of arm wrestling started as a bar-room diversion encouraged largely by the efforts of newspaper columnist Bill Soberanes, who went on to found the United States Armwrestling Foundation circa 1953. By 1969, arm/wrist wrestling had gained enough notoriety to land a regular spot on ABC’s Wide World…
Tracing its history back as far as 3,000 years ago, to the original inhabitants of what is now Mexico, El Día de los Muertos, or the Day of the Dead, is a festival during which the living honor the dead by offering them sweets, decorating their graves and sharing fond…
You can never have too many cute little boutiques featuring fashion, accessories, small gifts — and wardrobe design services, naturally. That’s what Lauren Metz and Erica Walters thought, anyway, so they’re opening up their new Greenwood Village shop, Delish Demure, this afternoon at 4 p.m. with a fashion show featuring…
Denver is home to some seriously talented women. Want proof? Look no further than Femme Fatale Three: Like a Fish Needs a Bicycle. It’s the third installation of the Femme Fatale Art Collective’s showcase extravaganza, and there are some additional enticements this time around. “We added the dancers,” notes founder…
Bastardino sounds like a rude name one Italian might call another, but it’s actually a term for a mixed-heritage dog (aka mutt). There’s even a Festival of the Bastardino in Italy — a celebration of mutts, if you will. “Our organization rescues dogs from shelters to train them as service…
Robert M. Pirsig is a fascinating human being. In his bestseller, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry Into Values — which follows Pirsig and his son, Chris, on an epic 1968 journey by motorcycle toward a greater understanding of value and quality — the author struggled to…
“The Book of Lies started when a woman came to me and told an incredible story,” says Brad Meltzer about the novel he’ll read from and sign tonight — and he’s not exaggerating. The woman in question turned out to be the niece of the late Jerry Siegel, who came…
“Before Bruce Lee, Jackie Chan, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon…There Was Red Heroine.” Those words flash across the screen to introduce the Devil Music Ensemble’s trailer for the silent 1929 kung fu film, accompanied by a taste of the original score the band has created for the movie. A lively drumbeat…
Even Michael Pennington, the acclaimed English actor who’s appeared in dozens of Shakespeare’s plays (as well as Star Wars: Return of the Jedi, in which he portrayed the small role of Imperial officer Moff Jerjerrod) admits that he doesn’t know everything there is to know about the Bard. It seems…
The world of anime (Japanese animation) is far deeper than Dragon Ball Z reruns. From the visionary science fiction of Akira and Ghost in the Shell to the noirish, surreal visions of Satoshi Kon’s Perfect Blue and the perverse sexuality of hentai, anime is a deep and complex medium that…
Directed by John Crowley, Boy A is a brutally soulful film that tells the tale of a young man trying to forge a new life after serving time for a murder committed as a boy. The film’s strengths are many: marvelous performances; a challenging script that makes seamless connections between…
For Bay Area poet-turned-playwright Marisela Treviño Orta, the Latino legend of La Llorona has always been more ghost story than parable: “She is kind of a bogeyman, a scary figure,” Orta says of the woman in white who is damned to roam the earth in search of the children she…
“Orange County: A Personal History is really three books in one,” explains author Gustavo Arellano. “One part is a history of Orange County and the way it’s influenced the United States. I’ve tracked the big trends that have influenced the country, like religion, the horrible television shows, the idea of…
These days, the memoir is arguably a hotter medium than the novel. So why did Chuck Klosterman, who made his name chronicling his experiences in books such as Fargo Rock City, decide to tackle fiction with Downtown Owl, an alternately amusing and grim book he’ll discuss and sign tonight? “I…
